Photo: https://www.flickr.com/people/99116641@N00/ · CC BY-SA 2.0Hazard risk in Harbour Breton is lower than in 89% of Canadian towns
Around Harbour Breton, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.012 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Harbour Breton’s survey area, 5% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Harbour Breton a grade of A, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Harbour Breton’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Harbour Breton: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Harbour Breton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Harbour Breton grades A for hazard risk
For Harbour Breton, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Harbour Breton: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Harbour Breton’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Harbour Breton in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Forest crowds in on Harbour Breton: 80% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, more than the 52% within 25 km.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in Newfoundland and Labrador · highest of 33
Among the 33 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador, Labrador City burns fastest (0.43% a year); Harbour Breton is with the 8 near zero.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Harbour Breton is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 7.5% rank higher.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
No flood study is listed for Harbour Breton
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Harbour Breton: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Harbour Breton, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Newfoundland and Labrador, 59% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Harbour Breton.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Harbour Breton floods.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Harbour Breton just $0.012 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Harbour Breton it is only $0.012, 0.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Newfoundland and Labrador: Harbour Breton’s $0.012 sits by the median of $0.011, while Holyrood reaches $0.015.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (84%) face more earthquake damage than Harbour Breton.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Harbour Breton’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
5% of homes tested around Harbour Breton are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Central Regional Integrated Health Authority: radon tests
At 5% over the guideline, the area around Harbour Breton is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Harbour Breton than in most towns in Newfoundland and Labrador: 5% over the guideline (4% is typical), 2% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Harbour Breton, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
One home in Harbour Breton can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Harbour Breton
Alerts for Harbour Breton come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Harbour Breton to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Harbour Breton faces
Practical steps for Harbour Breton’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Harbour Breton takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Harbour Breton’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Harbour Breton.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Harbour Breton’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Harbour Breton
Does Harbour Breton flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Harbour Breton, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Harbour Breton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Harbour Breton’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Harbour Breton?
The area’s survey found 5% of 201 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Harbour Breton.
How big is the earthquake risk in Harbour Breton?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Harbour Breton $0.012 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Harbour Breton at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Harbour Breton: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).